Since coming to office in September 2013 the Abbott Government has treated Australia to a level of political contempt that the vast majority of voters have not experienced before in their lifetime.
Individually and collectively Abbott and his colleagues have; strewn the political landscape with broken election promises, uttered misleading statements and downright lies, indulged in episodes of egotistical political posturing, casually displayed racism, sexism and cronyism, been wantonly cruel when setting social and economic policies, constantly attacked the principles of equity and equality, ignored the nation's obligations under United Nations conventions, attempted to further erode separation of church and state, increased public debt with little to show for it, flaunted an intention to grow the divide between the mega-rich, rich & the merely comfortable off to downright poor, entered into an unhealthy relationship with a media empire, shown a chronic inability to accept responsibility for any bad Coalition decision made since the last federal election and, threatened both senators and voters with more oppressive measures if the remainder of the unfair 2014-15 budget is not passed.
Individual voters have muttered, yelled, shrieked, cursed, blogged or tweeted their displeasure by the droves. They have written letters to the editor, sent letters to government, banded together to publish open letters and, marched in their tens of thousands.
In the face of all this antipathy, the Abbott Government has merely increased its ideology-driven destruction for destruction's sake, convinced that all will be well by the time the next election rolls around.
However, I suspect that Abbott’s call for everyone to join his brown shirted, jackbooted Team Australia will turn out to be that step too far and the Prime Minister, his Cabinet, state senators and local MPs are about to discover how practiced the populace is at quietly stubborn subversion and sustained non-violent civil resistance – skills which have been honed down the generations since those early days of the first colony.
If the Sunburnt Revolution becomes a reality, then Liberal and National Party politicians will have nowhere left to hide by the time they are publicly booted off that Canberra hill.
